TABLEAUX VIVANT
"HAPPY DAYS"
BY SAMUEL BECKETT
NAPA VALLEY THEATER COMPANY
AAA STUDIOS
San Francisco, July 7 - 15, 1985
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In the summer of 1985, our friends in the Napa Valley Theater Company suggested doing a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days” for a short run in our AAA Studios in San Francisco. The great performer sk dunn was playing Winnie and our friend Dan Woodworth was Willie. I always think back to Rhoda Eland’s great performance in Seattle at the Ensemble Theater, directed by Dale, and of Winnie, sitting in the big pile of garbage I had created for her, and Dale and I sitting backstage alone, during the small houses and the long rainy nights and whispering backstage and Dale’s decision to close the theater and Winnie’s long, sad monologue. “Get through the day, Winnie!” she calls out alone, to herself, slowly sinking out of sight, “Get through the day!”
Helen Bergruen was doing the set and Russell was helping her adapt the show to the studio. Well, he called me up and said Bill, I know what it should look like but I have no idea how to do it. If I only had a little sketch or something from you, you know, to give me an idea how to do it, or such.
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In the end it was a beautiful production and long remembered. Though sk later belittled her performance, many people remember it as one of the finest and most moving they had ever seen. Russell said the drawings were a big help and that people liked the set a lot. Ah, the Theater!
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Sometime later, sk wrote:
i never felt that i truly understood winnie. safe to say that she was as far from being me as anyone could get. finding myself in her situation, the last thing i would ever do is try, valiantly, to 'keep my chin up,' which i think is what winnie is doing. she never complains, she fights off fear & self pity, she prays, she sings and she tries to find the bright side. how much further from me could she be? she is also grateful to willie for his less than minimal support and treats him with kindness and affection. what a gal!!
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